Mike Cannon-Brookes, the Sydney-based founder of the $10 billion global tech business Atlassian, has accused federal immigration minister Peter Dutton of spreading “bullshit” about his company as the Turnbull government argues its case for scrapping the 457 visa.

Around a quarter of the company’s 1000-strong Australian workforce are on 457 temporary migration visas and The Australian today resurrected five-month old quotes from Cannon-Brookes on the issue, where he said the biggest problem local tech startups have as they grow is finding experienced senior technical talent.

“The biggest gap the 457s fill are the people that come in — the guys and girls who come in — have spent 10 years in a Silicon Valley company or a great European company and they come in and train the grads,” Cannon-Brookes said in November 2016.

Subsequently, Dutton questioned Atlassian’s employment practices, saying “Are they going into schools looking for young kids to go and work in jobs? Are they employing mature aged workers who have found themselves out of a job elsewhere?”.

Cannon-Brookes took to Twitter to ask rhetorically if he’d been “trolled” by the minister “as being un-Australian?”

“This bullshit makes me mad,” Atlassian’s co-CEO wrote, kicking off a series of tweets on the issue in which he mostly endorsed the changes.

Wow… ? did I just get trolled by a govt minister as being un-Australian? https://t.co/tM9Qxs3het – this bullshit makes me mad…